This invention relates generally to depth measurement and more particularly to a method and system for representing the depths of the floors of the oceans.
Representations of the bottom of the oceans, or oceans"" floors, are useful for a variety of purposes. For example, ocean explorers often require detailed information concerning the depth at various locations on oceans"" floors to perform their exploration activities. In addition, ship and submarine captains often require detailed depth information to avoid collisions with the oceans"" floors. Such information is generally referred to as bathymetric data, and a model of ocean floors is generally referred to as a bottom model.
Measurements are often available from a variety of sources for use in generating a bottom model. Such sources include distinct data measurements taken by different vessels in overlapping areas of an ocean floor such that a depth measurement at a given location is provided by more than one source. These multiple depth measurements generally do not indicate the same depth. One approach to addressing the availability of data from a number of sources in a given region involves discarding data from all but one source. However, such discarding of data results in a less accurate bottom model than could be obtained if all data measurements were utilized. Although it is desirable to generate a bottom model that is based upon the combination of data measurements taken by a plurality of sources, such combining may lead to inconsistent values for a depth at a given location. Therefore, in the generation of a bottom model, depth measurements should be combined in a way that produces only one depth value at each location.
In bottom model generation, it is often desirable to generate a depth at a plurality of designated locations on the ocean floor, such as grid locations; however, data measurements are often taken at randomly distributed locations. Therefore, a method is needed to generate a bottom model having model depths at grid locations that do not necessarily coincide with the location of depth measurements. Moreover, it is also advantageous for such grid locations to provide depth values at spatial resolutions that are consistent with the measured data.
Accordingly, a need has arisen for an improved method and system for representing the depths of the floors of the oceans. The present invention provides an apparatus and method for representing the depths of the floors of the oceans that addresses shortcomings of prior systems and methods.
According to one embodiment of the invention, a method for generating a model of a portion of a floor of a body of water from a plurality of depth measurement sources includes determining an overlap of any of the plurality of depth measurement sources with another depth measurement source and generating a relative shift between each two depth measurement sources that overlap. The method also includes, for each depth measurement source that overlaps with at least one other source, generating an overall shift based on the generated relative shifts. The method also includes generating a desired grid having a plurality of grid nodes and generating a model depth at a plurality of the grid nodes based, at least in part, on the overall shifts. The method also includes generating an output of all model depths at respective grid nodes.
Embodiments of the invention provide numerous technical advantages. For example, in one embodiment, biases among data sets are reduced by shifting the data sets. Furthermore, the shifting gives greatest weight to data sets having the smallest measurement errors. In addition, in another embodiment of the invention, the resolution of a data set is automatically generated without requiring subjective evaluation of the data, which increases processing speed and results in a more accurate bottom model. Furthermore, overlapping data source sets are combined, which provides for a more accurate bottom model than would obtained if data were discarded. In addition, a more accurate bottom model is obtained by interpolating data values according to semi-variograms that are constructed based only on nearby data points, rather than all available data. This procedure accounts for varying levels of correlation of data within a data source set and therefore produces a more accurate bottom model.
Other technical advantages are readily apparent to one skilled in the art from the following figures, descriptions, and claims.